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Jimmie Johnson wins Duck Commander 500: 5 takeaways from Texas

By Charles Rahrig V

Mar 1, 2015; Hampton, GA, USA; NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Jimmie Johnson (48) celebrates winning the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Liles-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 1, 2015; Hampton, GA, USA; NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Jimmie Johnson (48) celebrates winning the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Liles-USA TODAY Sports /
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Jimmie Johnson outlasted Kevin Harvick’s run of dominance took the checkered flag at Texas Motor Speedway. Here’s five takeaways from Saturday night’s race.

The Duck Commander 500 is in the books and a night of high speeds, wrecks and the cast of Duck Dynasty running amok came to an exciting finish.

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Jimmie Johnson, the winner of six Sprint Cup Championships, reminded everyone why he’s a force to be reckon with as he picked up his second victory of the season.

It was a showdown between Kevin Harvick and Johnson on the track Saturday as the two went back and forth and battled for the win at the end of the race.

It’s the 11th time that Johnson and Harvick have finished first and second together. Johnson has been the more dominant taking nine of the occasions.

While Johnson picked up a victory earlier at Atlanta, he hadn’t really been dominating like Harvick and Joey Logano had. Johnson has been on the wrong end of some wrecks and struggled to find consistency on the track. Johnson’s win moves him ahead of Logano in the Sprint Cup Standings and right behind Harvick for the points lead.

It was also a night of relief for Carl Edwards. Edwards finally picked up his first Top-10 finish of the season after struggling mightily the first six races.

The Top-10 finish allowed Edwards to make a considerable leap in the points standings.

With the seventh race of the schedule in the books, here are five takeaways from a shootout in Texas.

1. Can Kevin Harvick be stopped?

Even though he didn’t win, Kevin Harvick was still dominant on the track and had a chance to win the race. He races aggressively and almost harder than any other driver on the course.

At one point, Harvick got up behind Joey Logano and almost caused the No. 22 to wreck as he worked his way to the front for one last shot at Johnson.

Ultimately, in a cruel twist of irony, it was Harvick’s hard driving that caused him his last chance at Johnson and the win. As Harvick was narrowing the gap, he got a little too loose and rubbed right against the wall. That was all it took to allow Jimmie to pull away for good.

Harvick would have to hold off Johnson’s teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. for second.

2. Jeff Gordon is still having issues but was good enough for seventh

Jeff Gordon’s shining moment of the season has been winning the pole for the Daytona 500. Since then, the No. 24 in his last full season of racing has had trouble staying on the track and finding consistency.

At the start of the race, Gordon could be heard talking into his radio that the team had a fast car, but there was no balance and he was struggling to get a grip of the track.

Through shear will and veteran knowledge, Gordon was able to work his way into seventh and he grabbed his fourth Top-1o finish of the year. While Gordon is 13th in the points and is certainly doing fine, his cars have had so much more potential than the results that have been given.

Maybe this can be the race that can catapult Gordon into picking up a Top-5 finish or a victory.

3. Don’t leak oil or fluids into the pits!

Justin Allgaier didn’t have a good night on the track and much like a small child with crayons, he left a mess on his way back to the garage.

It all started when Allgaier paid a visit to his old friend, the wall.

As Allgaier brought out more smoke than Snoop Dogg on his way back to the garage, he was also leaking fluids and oils into the pits of teammates Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne, who were both near the lead at the time of the incident.

As a result their pit stalls were a complete mess and the caution came out.

With the pits needing to be cleaned before the Johnson and Kahne returned, it was all hands on deck as the pit crews of each team and NASCAR officials frantically cleaned up the mess that was left behind.

4. Watch out for wild animals

Everything is bigger in Texas, and so are their rabbits apparently. During the race, a caution flag came out as a very large rabbit came out onto the track.

How it got there is anyone’s guess, but down in Texas these mammoth bunnies are commonly known as Jackalopes.

Richard Childress Racing even had fun with the incident on their team Twitter, suggesting that Jackalope warning signs be placed on the track for precaution next time.

Even more impressively, the bushy-tailed bystander was fast enough to not get run over by the cars traveling at high speeds.

Hey it’s Texas, everything is faster there.

5. Michael Waltrip shouldn’t be eating tacos near any of the drivers cars

Michael Waltrip might be the most entertaining portion of the Fox’s telecasts each week. Before every race he goes up to the drivers and asks them random questions to get them loose before they hop in a car for several hundred miles.

Saturday night, Waltrip offered Denny Hamlin a taco before the race. Much to the horror of Hamlin and car buffs watching around the world, Waltrip spilt out half of the taco straight onto the windshield of the No. 11

There’s a good chance food and perhaps Michael Waltrip will be banned from the pits before the start of each race now. Waltrip even joked as much during the broadcast, that he thought his reporting days were over.

Be more careful Michael!

Next week NASCAR heads to Bristol, for the Food City 500. Hopefully for everyone’s sake, Jeff Gordon can get some consistent miles out of his car, Michael Waltrip won’t be eating messy foods near the cars and no wildlife try to enter the dangerous terrain of the race track.

One thing is for sure, there was nothing more entertaining than the 500 miles of racing in Texas on Saturday night.

[H/T: RCR, NASCAR_Vine_Maker, Hendrick Motorsports, NASCAR on FOX]

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